Judge gives Boston Scientific $200M break on Medtronic payout

Boston Scientific to pay Medtronic $19 million instead of $250 million. Image Source: www.flickr.com

Boston Scientific scored a major victory in an ongoing patent dispute with Medtronic involving balloon catheters and stent delivery systems, when the judge reduced the award from $250 million to $19 million.

A U.S. District Court Judge in Texas ruled that two of the three Medtronic patents in question were “unenforceable for inequitable conduct.”

In May, the Minneapolis-based Medtronic won the case against Boston Scientific that it began in 2006, alleging that Boston Scientific’s Taxus Express2, Express2, Liberte, Maverick, Maverick2 and Quantum Maverick products infringed its Fitzmaurice and Anderson catheter patents.

With only one remaining patent in question, the Natick, Mass.-based Boston Scientific now must pay a jury award of about $19 million.

Boston Scientific said it would appeal the remaining $19 million damage award to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C.